Bishops consider Liturgy of the Hours, penance, Marian translations (CATH CAUCUS)

Angelus ^ | July 17, 2020 | Mark Pattison

[Marchmain]

A decade-long series of retranslating and approving liturgical texts is nearing its end, but isn't quite there yet.

These sets are on Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church; additional intercessions and psalter concluding prayers for the Liturgy of the Hours; and the Order of Penance.

The votes on each set require two-thirds approval of the Latin-rite bishops. Following such approval, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments needs to issue a "confirmatio" before the translations can be used.

"We continue to make steady progress," said Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Connecticut, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Divine Worship. "We're hopeful we might have a completed new edition printed and ready for you by 2025."

The process began inside the United States at the bishops' fall 2012 meeting, when they approved a "scope of work" for the Liturgy of the Hours. While some texts would remain untouched, others would be completely retranslated and some others would receive minor adjustments. Texts for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter have already been approved by the bishops.

With the Order of Penance, "the new text does not represent a drastic change with respect to the current translation, although the new texts are more precise than the older material," Archbishop Blair said.

Given the massive nature of the work, some translations were inadvertently omitted. These include intercessions for St. Joseph – both the March 19 feast and the May 1 memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.

Also missing are intercessions for the Annunciation of the Lord – both evening prayer and morning prayer – as well as intercessions for lauds (morning prayer) for the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

[Marchmain]

The last time Order of Penance text translations were approved by the bishops was in 1975, Archbishop Blair said. In response to another question, Father Menke alluded to a slight change in the formulation of absolution, but "the actual, essential part of the sacramental formula hasn't changed, however. A couple of the words have changed leading up to that. It might be frustrating for some priest trying to memorize that,' but there is "no issue" if they "use the old version out of habit."

[ebb tide]

Why re-tranlate what has already been translated unless there’s an ulterior motive?

[Unam Sanctam]

Because the previous translations were done in the 1970s with a faulty translation concept called “dynamic equivalence”, which allowed basically for rough paraphrases. These new translations are more faithful translations from the Latin, doing for the Liturgy of the Hours and other documents what was done with the corrected Missal translation a few years back.

[ebb tide]

Thank-you!